HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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these being united in religion, diverge not from each other in points of scienceor natural pursuits. The inferior vessels, intended for commercial purposes, areall constructed almost on the same principle with the galleythat is to say, thesimilitude is sufficiently striking to convince the most casual observer, totallydestitute of any previous knowlege, of the fact, that the vessel already given asthe parent, the saicque, the polacre, the barque, the tartar, the felucca, andmany others, bearing different denominations, but almost immaterially varyingfrom each other except in their name, are the artificial, or rather mechanicalcontrivances, if not of one country, at least,, of one people, living under thesame temperature, and most closely addicted to the same habits in life and in-commerce.

Passing over that immense continent which separates the Indian from the Medi-terranean sea, the practice and opinions on the same subject, incontrovertiblyproved by the fact itself, appear as widely varying from the former; as though theywere the invention of a different class or species of beings. Nor is this variation'entirely confined to the grand distinction between the junk of China, and thesaicque or felucca of Barbarv; but is scarcely less wide between the junk just'mentioned, and the grab of that sea which is properly called the Indian Ocean. ‘

The marine architecture of this extensive country, considering the state in-whichit at present appears, deserves a greater degree of attention, than it would* per-haps, merit on account of its own excellence, inasmuch as it has proved, andat this instant displays, a true picture of the extent to which the human mind, in-what may be considered its natural state, and totally deprived of all extraneous in-struction, is capable of being carried.

The marine of a newly discovered, and what is consequently considered as arude uncivilized nation or country, affords very little room for speculative animad-version or argument. The inhabitants having, in all probability, considered them-selves as the emperors or sole masters of the universe, which they supposed totallyconfined to the narrow limits of their own discovery and knowlege, they becamenaturally indifferent to any extension, with respect to the science of navigation, in ;the very limited extent they had been enabled to practise it. But how widelydifferent is the case when the scene becomes removed, not only to people knownfor centuries to Europeans, but who have been considered by them, perhaps withjustice, more civilized and polished than themselves. "While, on one hand, theimprovements made by more alert nations, lead them arrogantly to despise thesystem and the customs of the Chinese, they will not dare withhold their admira-tion